The first time I heard of Tchotchke, I thought, “What a great name!” Sure, knick-knack, gewgaw and gimcrack wouldn’t be bad either, but ‘tchotchke’ stands out because of its secondary meaning: a young woman whose main asset is her pretty face. Trinkets and bimbos? Count me in! The band’s self-titled debut from 2022 was a fun listen, so I had high hopes for Playin’ Dumb. It not only picks up where its predecessor left off but exceeds expectations – I’m stunned by just how wildly entertaining it is.
Let me start with what might not sound as praise, though. Everything the New York trio’s second LP offers, you’ve heard it all before. Playin’ Dumb is not groundbreaking or revolutionary, nor will it go down in history as one of the all-time great albums. In short, it’s no Songs in the Key of Life. But Anastasia Sanchez, Eva Chambers and Emily Tooraen have pulled off a feat that stems from the album’s authentic spirit: you simply cannot guess the release date.
That said, much of Playin’ Dumb feels as if the band time travelled to circa 1966 to open for the Supremes. Listening to ‘Skipping Around’, a candy-coated warning sent out to all the girls who want to “go skipping around with my man”, you can almost see the backup dancers doing their carefully choreographed moves as Tchotchke perform this latest smash hit of theirs on the Ed Sullivan Show. Instrumentation, vocals, harmonies, lyrics – the trio have it all down to a tee.
Having bonded over their shared love of the Beach Boys and ‘60s girl groups, the three ladies hang around in that decade for quite a bit, narrating the stories of a cast of characters you can divide into lovelorn winners and lovelorn losers. And boy are their lives full of high drama! I mean, can you imagine how Chrissy in ‘Poor Girl’ must have felt when, at the hairdresser’s, she “showed ‘em Brigitte Bardot” and “they gave her Monroe”? Then there’s the girl in ‘Did You Hear?’ who sticks with her two-timing boyfriend, desperately wondering if he’ll ever love her. Does your heart not break for these hapless heroines?
What’s the point of having a time machine if you don’t make the most of it, though? The three-piece certainly do and they have a blast hopping back and forth between decades. The gorgeous harmonies in their piano-led two-minute visit to the ‘50s, the aforementioned ‘Now I Love You’, remind you of the traditional pop vocal quartet the Chordettes, even if the two groups don’t quite share the same desires. While those ladies were begging Mr. Sandman to bring them the cutest fella with “lips like roses and clover”, the girl in the Tchotchke track simply wants “somebody to rub and jump my bones”. Just a reminder, I guess, that it is in fact the year 2025 we’re in – it’s okay to feel horny and say so.
The ‘70s are another popular destination, nowhere more so than on the Ramones-influenced title track about a girl who plays “dim dum dum” just to make her boyfriend feel smart. Elsewhere, the cartoonish sound effects on opener ‘The Game’ evoke the idiosyncrasies of Sparks, and for all the ‘60s aesthetic that permeates the record, Sanchez’ lead vocals keep bringing a young Kate Bush to mind. Sometimes, though, the decades blend into one another. Before recording the guitar solo for ‘Goodbye’, Tooraen must have thought to herself, “Right, I’m going for George Harrison jamming with Weezer”, and the string arrangements on ‘Davide’ even take you back to 19th century Vienna – Tchotchke dropping in on the Strauss family to ask if the waltz they’ve composed meets with their approval.
If you’re familiar with the trio’s debut album, their reluctance to be pinned down to any period or any actual genre won’t take you by surprise. Plus, once again, the Lemon Twigs have been at the production helm and they themselves excel at channeling the power pop bands of a bygone era. Still, Playin’ Dumb is a step forward for Tchotchke in that, despite being shorter, the songs are more sophisticated and more complex, both musically and lyrically. But above all they’re just pure gold. Not a single tchotchke in sight.
Playin’ Dumb is out 5 September via Tchotchke Records LLC
Tchotchke: Website | Bandcamp | Instagram
Review by Attila Peter
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